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John Stahl (Azerbaijan, 1886),
born Jacob Strelitsky in the Soviet Union,
began directing melodramas during the silent era:
Wives of Men (1918),
Her Code of Honor/ The Call of the Heart (1919), where his melodramatic stereotypes begin to emerge,
The Woman Under Oath (1919), a courtroom drama with a woman as protagonist,
Sowing the Wind (1921),
The Child Thou Gavest Me (1921),
Suspicious Wives (1921),
One Clear Call (1922), scripted by Bess Meredyth,
The Song of Life (1922), also scripted by Bess Meredyth,
the marital comedy Why Men Leave Home (1924),
Husbands and Lovers (1924), which is perhaps the best of his silent movies, at least visually,
Fine Clothes (1925), an adaptation of the Ferenc Molnar play "Fashions for Men",
Memory Lane (1926), scripted by Benjamin Glazer,
and
In Old Kentucky (1927).
His major season began with
A Lady Surrenders (1930),
Seed (1931), adapted from a Charles Norris novel,
and Strictly Dishonorable (1931), an adaptation of Preston Sturges' theatrical play of 1929.
Back Street (1932), an elaborate adaptation of Lloyd Douglas' novel that required twelve screenwriters,
Only Yesterday (1933),
the film debut of Margaret Sullavan,
was adapted from
Frederick Lewis Allen's
bestselling book and was the first screen adaptation of
Stefan Zweig’s novel "Letter from an Unknown Woman".
Neither of the two protagonists of
Imitation of Life (1934), from the Fanny Hurst novel,
can be fully happy, despite being good, honest, loving and hard-working.
Both have the same curse: their entire life is invested in their daughters,
who will both disappoint them. They will both have to surrender their lives
(one by dying and the other one by remaining single) in order to fulfill
their mission towards their daughters. The story is not about two women
starting a successful business, but about two women who become very close
friends, almost sisters, and that share the destiny of being mothers.
A young white widow, Beatrice, with a baby girl, meets a
black widow, Delilah, a good woman who is looking for a job as a maid.
The two become very close friends, taking care of each other's daughter.
Beatrice has kept the maple-syrup business of her husband aline, and
Delilah is a master of pancakes. Beatrice decides to pool together their
skills and open a store. The store is successful. Not only do they pay off
their debts, but they also impress a stranger, Helmut, who tells them how to get rich:
"box it". They start selling pancake dough by the millions, and become staples
of the high society. When a gentleman, a friend of Helmut, who has now
become a partner in the business, falls in love with Bea, love also enters
the life of the woman.
The good-hearted Delilah has one major problem: her daughter Piola is ashamed
of being black, and, being a light-skinned mulatto, she tries to hide her race
to the other children. Now a grown-up, she runs away. Delilah and Bea find her
working in a restaurant: the girl is ashamed of her and pretends not to know
her. Back home, she tells Delilah that she doesn't want to be found, that
she wants to live her life as a white woman.
At the same time, Bea's daughter has taken advantage of her mother's absence
to seduce her mother's fiance. When her mother comes back, the fiance pretends
nothing has happened while he is secretely meeting the daughter.
Delilah dies of a heartbreak while Bea begins to have suspicions about
her daughter and her fiance.
At the (majestic) funeral, Piola comes to cry on her mother's coffin, and to
finally accept her destiny as a black woman. Bea decides to call off the
wedding with her fiance, knowing that this is the only way to regain
confidence with her daughter.
Magnificent Obsession (1935)
the biopic Parnell (1937)
Letter of Introduction (1938)
When Tomorrow Comes (1939), based on James Cain's novel "The Root of his Evil", is a Depression-era drama.
Our Wife (1941)
Then came the war movie Immortal Sergeant (1943),
Holy Matrimony (1943), an adaptation of Arnold Bennett's novel "Buried Alive" (1908),
The Eve of St. Mark (1944), an adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's theatrical play,
and
The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), an adaptation of
Archibald Cronin's novel.
Leave Her to Heaven (1945) is an adaptation of
Ben Ames Williams' best-selling novel, a thriller with psychological overtones
in which the deadly jealous protagonist has morbid affair with the memory of
her dead father.
A boat carries Dick back to his home. He has been in prison two years.
He is welcomed back by the attorney who defended him, Glen.
The attorney tells his story. He invited the young promising writer Dick to
his place. On the train Dick met a gorgeous exotic woman, Ellen (Gene Tierney),
who was struck by his resemblance to her late father.
The flashback continues. Dick and Ellen get off at the same train station and
are welcomed by the same Glen. It turns out that her mother is a friend of
Glen's. Dick meets her mother and her cousin Ruth. It is obvious that Dick is
pleased to continue the acquaintance with Ellen. Glen drives them to his ranch,
located by a river in the middle of a remote lunar landscape.
Dick is invited to a family dinner. Ellen's husband died far away and was
cremated. The family plans to scatter his ashes in the dead man's favorite place,
and that's where she spends many hours alone.
Ellen is engaged to a politician, Russ. Dick is also fond of her cousin Ruth,
and she is fond of him. But the story of the family is that Ellen always wins:
she breaks up her engagement with Russ and announces her engagement with Dick,
surprising Dick himself.
Russ comes to tell Ellen that he still loves her. She scorns and mocks him.
He threatens her. When Russ leaves, she smilingly hugs Dick and proposes to him.
They get married immediately. They move into their new house in Dick's favorite
place, and she tells him
that she will never allow anybody else to walk into the house and she will
do everything herself for him. It sounds good, but a bit eerie.
Dick has a much younger brother, Danny, who is disabled and is staying at
a hospital. Dick wants to take Danny with them. Ellen talks to the doctor
and obviously tries to discourage him from allowing this. She finds all
sorts of excuses: the rugged and isolated place where they live, the
intense lifestyle of Dick, and her own desire to be alone with Dick (the
real truth, probably). She doesn't tell Dick that she doesn't want Danny:
she wants the doctor to tell Dick that Danny should stay at the hospital.
When Dick walks into the office, she puts on an angelic smile and welcomes
the news that Danny will move in with them, as if nothing happened, leaving
the doctor thunderstruck. Danny therefore travels with them to the remote
paradisiac land.
One day Dick and his friend Leick surprise Ellen by inviting her mother and
Ruth to visit: Ellen is far from excited and at dinner she insults her own
mother.
Her mother tells Ellen that Russ has been elected district attorney and may
soon run for governor.
Dick confronts Ellen about her hostile behavior, and Ellen reveals her
jealousy towards Ruth, his brother Danny and his friend.
Basically she's jealous of anybody who gets any attention from him.
Ellen takes Danny on a boat. He decides to swim and she follows him with
the boat. She encourages him to swim farther and farther away until the kid
gets a cramp and starts drowning. She watches coldly as the kid goes down.
Then, when she is sure that he is dead, she pretends to jump to save his life,
but it's too late. Dick is devastated. They try to cheer him up by restoring
what used to be the laboratory of Ellen's father but Ellen is horrified.
Ellen finally gets pregnant. She is not happy.
Ellen tells Ruth that she hates the baby who is coming to intrude in her married
life. Ellen thinks that she and Dick do not need anyone else. Ellen is jealous
even of her own baby.
One day she wears high heels and trips on purpose on a carpet right at the
top of the stairs. The fall kills the baby. She was willing to risk her life
in order to get rid of the baby she was carrying.
Dick publishes a new novel. It is set in Mexico. Ellen is jealous that he
dedicated the book to Ruth. Ellen finds out that Ruth is going away. Ruth
admits she is going to Mexico. Ellen sees a conspiracy: while she was at
the hospital, Ruth had Dick all for herself.
Ruth explodes.
Ruth accuses Ellen of having filled the house with hatred.
Ellen tormented her as a child, and now Ruth is running away because she
doesn't want to be tormented anymore.
Dick overhears the conversation. He realizes that her love for him borders on
madness. He pressures her and she confesses that she is responsible for
the death of Danny and the fall from the stairs.
She screams that she doesn't want anyone but him. At least she's telling him
the truth. Dick tells her coldly that he is leaving her.
She cannot take it. She always wins, just like she won against Danny.
Now her target is Ruth. Ellen architects a plan to make it look like she
was poisoned by Ruth, and writes a letter to her former fiance Russ.
Dick is about to board a plane when they call him back to the house.
Ellen dies telling Dick that she will never let him go.
Russ is the prosecutor for Ruth's trial. The evidence points to Ruth poisoning
the sugar that Ellen used in her coffee.
Russ calls Dick as a witness and asks him to read the last letter that Ellen
wrote. In it Ellen tells Russ that Dick and Ruth are in love and are trying
to get rid of her. Russ make Dick look like a guilty man.
At the stand Ruth looks even guiltier: she asked for the body of Ellen to be
cremated, as Ellen had wanted, but it turns out that Ellen wrote in her will
that she wanted to be buried. The cremation sounds like an expedient to
make sure there would be no autopsy.
Worse: under pressure at the stand Ruth admits that she is in love with Dick.
Russ calls Dick again and asks him whether he is in love with Ruth.
Dick testifies that Ellen was a monster and claims that Ellen commits suicide.
Dick tells Russ about Ellen's confession that she killed Danny and the unborn
child. The jury acquits Ellen of the murder, but finds Dick guilty of not
having reported Ellen's crime.
Dick is sentenced to two years in prison.
For the first time Ellen lost: she died to frame Ellen and instead she inadvertently framed Dick.
The flashback ends. After leaving Glen, Dick has been rowing the boat towards
his home where a loving Ruth is waiting for him.
Now Ellen has really lost.
He ended his career with mediocre works:
The Foxes of Harrow (1947), an adaptation of
Frank Yerby’s novel,
The Walls of Jericho (1948), another adaptation,
the comedy Father Was a Fullback (1949),
and
the musical biopic
Oh You Beautiful Doll (1949).
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